WaitForHttp requires port before container start – how to wait for mapped host port?

[goloroden]

I’m currently trying to use WaitForHttp in the PHP Testcontainers SDK to wait until a specific HTTP route in my container becomes available.

The challenge I’m facing is that I have to provide a port number when calling WaitForHttp. However, the actual port mapped to the host is dynamically assigned at container startup. Since I don’t know this port in advance, I run into a chicken-and-egg problem: I need to configure WaitForHttp before starting the container, but the mapped port is only available after the container has been started.

In the Go and JavaScript SDKs, this problem is solved under the hood: WaitForHttp automatically resolves the mapped host port for the given internal container port. This allows you to use dynamic port mappings (which are often preferred to avoid hardcoding ports) without running into timing issues.

In the PHP SDK, however, I couldn’t find a way to do something similar. Maybe I’m missing something? Is there a recommended approach to wait for an HTTP endpoint when the host port is assigned dynamically?

Thanks in advance – and sorry if I’ve overlooked something obvious!

[rw4lll]

Hi @goloroden !

Thank you for the detailed description. You’re absolutely right: in the current PHP Testcontainers SDK, the wait strategy expects a specific port, which makes it tricky to use dynamic host port mappings out of the box. I’ve encountered this issue in the past too, but it seems it wasn’t a common use case, so it likely remained unaddressed.

I’m happy to share that I’ve prepared a fix for this issue! This ensures that WaitForHttp can automatically resolve the dynamically assigned host port for a given internal container port, similar to how it works in other Testcontainers implementations.

You can check out the pull request here: #42.

Thanks again for raising this question and describing the problem so clearly — your input is invaluable for improving the library! 🚀

[goloroden]

Hi @rw4lll 👋

That's awesome news – thank you so very much for taking care of this immediately!

You made my day 🦄